On Friday Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta signed into law a controversial security bill which saw MPs trade blows in parliament, threatening Kenya’s security.
US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Friday said the US was concerned about the move. “We’re concerned about provisions that appear to limit freedom of assembly and media, and access to asylum for refugees.”
A senior Kenyan official at the State House has criticized the United States for raising concerns about a new Kenyan law aimed at fighting “terrorism”.
Munyori Buku said in a statement on the presidential website that Kenya’s new law had checks and balances, unlike US security laws that have created the Guantanamo Bay detention center and given the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and intelligence officers “a carte blanche in the fight against terrorism and biological warfare”.
President Uhuru Kenyatta signed the law on Friday saying it will help fight terrorism in the country . The president said the law will protect the lives of all citizens. But critics in Kenya have said it will be used to crush dissent by curbing civil liberties.
However Kenya’s main opposition group, the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy. said the real target of the new law was not terrorism but to reintroduce the police state and political hegemony, and would hand the president sweeping autocratic powers.